The large RPG PDF retailer DriveThruRPG today announced a potentially significant change in what publishers can do on their product pages.
It’s now possible for game designers and studios to add a wide range of links in their product descriptions to third-party sites such as Reddit, Facebook, Geek Native, or Dicebreaker.
Here’s the complete list;
Social Media Sites
Gaming News Sites
- dicebreaker.com
- ign.com
- polygon.com
- enworld.org
- geeknative.com
- tabletopgamingnews.com
- wired.com
- podbean.com
- podcasts.apple.com
- cannibalhalflinggaming.com
- thekindgm.com
The change is potentially significant because publishers can now link to product previews, a community for Q&As, FAQs, reviews, interviews and other supporting material to describe RPGs and their supplements.
However, there’s no guarantee that publishers will use it or, if they do, use the feature in a way that potential customers find helpful. Some may think twice about directing people away from a product page. The effort is usually the other way around, trying to persuade people from coverage on sites like IGN or Polygon to come to DriveThruRPG.
Historically, DriveThruRPG has kept tight control of outbound links. There are a few good reasons for this, such as curating the user experience, stopping people trying to game the platform with SEO in mind and even with web security in mind. DriveThruRPG does not want to send customers to sites that may have a virus or some other security flaw.
How do you get featured on Geek Native?
The social media sites may be the low hanging fruits on the list for publishers. Any community they have set up, or like, or simply active and helpful can be linked.
Some news sites are professional heavy hitters, which will need carefully crafted editorial pitches. These sites live or die by the article choices they make.
Geek Native, and one or two other news sites, is different. This is a hobby. This costs money for me doesn’t earn any.
However, the same basic rules apply; it’s not news that people can now buy your RPG, and reviews are a lot of work and often ignored. To get mentioned on Geek Native, we need to know why Geek Native readers might care to stop and read. That may be something simple that you’ve a free preview, remarkable in that an AI wrote half the supplement, content-based in that you can offer an exclusive preview or something else entirely.
If you have got an idea for an interesting news angle, then you can always get in touch.
Photograph credit: Tamara Gore.
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